I need Garden Therapy

I have just returned from our gardens after being away 4 days. I am depressed. I saw my first cucumber beetle and baby stink bug. The top of my Dr. Carolyn tomato is stunted and completely curled from the stem, there are aphids on the tomatoes and suspicious yellow/black circles on some of the plants. A whole row of edamame didn't come up! Something is eating the beans already. I will spray with pyrethrin in the AM...I guess.

What's wrong with me?? I mean there were lots of little green maters down there, blossoms on the squash, peppers and baby wheel bugs (to eat the future stink bugs) but all I can see is doom. Maybe tomorrow I will wake up with a new perspective.

Thanks for the vent!
-Kim

A lot happens in the garden in 4 days. I think to stay on top of things you need to check daily. I remember once being on vacation in Michigan for 8 days, When we got back, the garden was so much different [other times too]. The Great Dane pups were huge looking too.

Oh blue, I feel your pain.
My advice to you....don't get sad, get even!
Replant, apply your insecticides or organic soaps, pick and squish bugs you can catch, pull the heck out of any weeds that get in your way, fertilize and water. Most important, tell your plants you love them and you're sorry you left them to fend for themselves ( yea, it's a little over the top but you should cover all your bases). There is a lot of summer left, you and your plants will recover.

Sorry, bluekat. It's a bummer when everything goes to helsinki in a handbasket when you're gone, but isn't it nice to know you're needed?

What do your bean plants look like? Mine are having the tops gnawed off by bunnies. I think it has something to do with the drought: my nice watered bean plants are just what the bunnies want...

And cucumber beetles: no mercy. They are evil.

I'm working myway into comercial production, but along the way I've had many failers, it's a continual learning process. I find that the better the mineral balance along with higher organic matter in the soil, the more the bugs and deseases go away, and the better the bunnies, deer and woodchucks like it. I have about 400 tomatoes and peppers out now and about half a dozen have keeled over for some reason. A lot of independant education is helpful for getting good production, (books) but also a lot of trial and error seems unavoidable. I still have things that don't grow or get ate even after doing it for the last 35 yrs. (i arnt but 40, but momma gave me a plot to plant at around 5. i don't remember a year sence that we havn't grown something, sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. ) I found this article reciently, a nice description of the posibilities agiculture holds, been working on learning the system for a good 12 years, finally ready to go bigger than a garden with it. http://www.westonaprice.org/farming/nutrient-dense.html

There are round holes in the bean plant leaves - who knows what did that. John will spray in the AM. I just stared at the cucumber beetle, didn't even have time to react (kill). The tomatoes are in a new raised bed this year, lots of amendments and new soil. I am really worried about my Dr. Carolyn, it really looks like curly top leaf virus even though I have never had a problem before.. Seems like the more I know about good/bad bugs, virus/bacteria/fungus and soil pH, brix and amendmends the less I am in control! Hmmm, control problems.

Thanks everyone for feeling my pain :-)

On a positive note, my eggplants are just fine since they are under the row cover!

I will need lots of help beginning August. We are going to be gone for 2 weeks the end of July....
-Kim

Well, I've been right here the whole time and still had some losses, so I don't think you should feel guilty about abandoning your plants!

I should have put my two eggplants under row cover! I've been spraying them, but obviously not enough, they've been eaten to shreds by flea beetles. I feel bad about that since you gave me the plants. :-( Most of my cuke transplants (which were under row covers!) croaked, but I'm hoping the late start on replacements will mean they might escape the transmission window for the dreaded cucumber mosaic virus. (It's always good to look for the silver lining... for instance, I suppose I could consider that your poor little pair of eggplants provided an effective trap crop to protect the rest of the garden from the hungering hoards of flea beetles.)

I don't think you should fret about that tomato plant.... mine have been taking turns doing all sorts of weird curly-leaf things, but I think they're all right. The tomatoes in the new bed look pretty puny, but I think that's just because it takes a few seasons for the compost to break down into nice garden soil.

I'll bet by tomorrow evening you'll be admiring your garden beds and feeling smug again!

*hugs*

Jill, what were you doing up in the middle of the night?? I am sorry about your cukes I know how much you like them. If all else fails we could support the farmer's market!

Good News, the tomato virus is 'yellow leaf curl virus' and my plant does not have that. It's just so strange all the twisties and thick stems, it's my only Dr. Carolyn. John planted a bunch of fennel yesterday - I hear no bugs like them!

Oddly, the tomato plants in my main veggie bed are all looking quite vigorous... except for the section with the hybrid varieties! They are less than half the size of most of the others. Humph. So much for "hybrid vigor!" And the tomato plant that looks the worst is the grape tomato that I put in a huge deck planter, hoping to graze from it all summer. *sigh* Not that I can really complain, as most of the plants seem to be coming along very nicely! :-) I'm glad the tomato twisties weren't a sign of trouble on your Dr. Carolyn!

I keep sprinkling chopped mint leaves on my row of little bean plants, and so far the bunnies are ignoring them. Yay! The 'Black Valentine' beans look like nice sturdy plants, but my other row (hybrid bush bean) never germinated, so I've got a handful of seeds in moist paper towel & baggie to see what's up with them. The seeds were only 2 years old, I think, and they were stored cool/dark/dry, but maybe they're just no good. But I've got some germination finally on the beet seeds I sowed, so that little section of garden that isn't tomatoes will stop looking so bare soon!

You'll have fun with the fennel. I've got some out in the butterfly garden. I was hoping to see some caterpillars munching on it by now, but every fluffy little frond looks perfect, and the sweet fennel is even starting to bloom. The bronze fennel is shorter, but the plants look very sturdy.

Oops, sorry for chatting on about my veggies... Kim, I want to hear more about what's in your garden! Any fruits forming yet on the eggplants? How are the tomatillos doing?

Heya, Kim! You should be back in town after your Northern Excursion.... How are you doing? How fares the garden? In this heat etc, I'm afraid I had all I could do to get out in my own yard a little, so I didn't make it down to your place to make war on the stinkbugs.... hope your tomatoes did OK anyway...

We need an update! :-)